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Tumors Developing in Oophorectomized Sprague-Dawley Rats after a Single Gastric Instillation of 7,12-Dimethylbenz(a)anthracene¹

Department of Pathology, and Laboratory of Clinical Investigation of the Department of Internal Medicine, Institut Jules Bordet, Centre des Tumeurs de l'Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels Belgium

The present report describes the various types of tumors which developed in female Sprague-Dawley rats oophorectomized at age 46 days and fed a single dose of 20 mg 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene one week later. This method, which is known to induce breast carcinoma invariably in normal female rats of this strain, produced mammary cancer in only 5% of the oophorectomized rats, after a period of observation of about a year.

In contrast, a high percentage of rats presented tumors of the ear duct (59%), neurofibrosarcomas of the ear lobe (64%), and various tumors of the skin and skin appendages (22%). The appearance of these extramammary tumors may be due in part to the longer lifespan of the rats because they escaped the lethal effects of breast carcinoma. However, a relationship between carcinogenic reactivity of the skin and the endocrine status of the host cannot be ruled out.

¹ This work was supported by contract Euratom-ULB-Pise N° 026-63-4 BIAC.

Received 4/17/67. Accepted 10/13/67.